Travel Hacking for Beginners

no more secrets. Playing it all on the table about how we travel for virtually free because Travis don't like to pay for vacations. But when I tell him I paid for them all with travel awards, He's like, sign me up, let's go. Yes, what free food, free funds. Yeah, it's the only way I can get him to take a vacation. So this is for me and I want to share it with you if you have a partner

who is similar. We're talking really basic travel hacking, so like your first year, you're just getting into it, what to do, where to go, all the nuts and bolts, and making it very easy to understand because some of it when you get to be a very complex travel hacker, you can make this really really difficult, and you can get into the weeds with spreadsheets. You can't care. I'm not going to do that. We don't. I don't have a spreadsheet. I have a note on my phone. That's it.

That is the extent. But first, let's give a shout out to our sponsors, also brought to you by hacks working smarter, not harder. See how I also did that in a short fake spos. Okay, that's it. Lawyers and layers of meeting, working shorter, not longer, not longer. Let's do it. I know you are on a time crunch today,

so we're getting through this all right. If you want to check out some of our other episodes on travel, you can check out episode seventy one where we talked about travel hacking with Lee Huffman, and he's one of those experts that can really get you into the weeds. It was a great episode, but I don't think it was as beagon her friendly as we want to purvee here. And we also have episode one nineteen Frugal Travel with

Danielle Dezier. She helped us save money on travel outside of travel hacking like staycations and all kinds of stuff. Also relatively safe ways to travel, which was great. So definitely those two two caveats. Just before we get into our articles, for of all, I do want to say, if you've listened to Frugal Friends podcasts for any amount of time, you know that Jen and I are not opposed to credit cards. That is not our ultimate foundational message to avoid all credit cards. We do see benefits

of it. We think that it compare with the frugal mentality and frugal journey. However, this is our own personal journey right. Personal finance is personal, and so if credit cards are not for you, this episode might not be for you. We are talking a lot about how to use credit cards to get free travel, free rewards, free free free through credit cards, but it needs to be paired with wisdom and self knowledge and understanding of what

is best for us. So please just know that also, we are doing this in the midst of a pandemic when travel is very restricted. So we are hoping that part of this episode can be ever green, meaning that we have hopes that more travel will be available in the future and this will continue to be a helpful episode.

But this still doesn't mean that this is irrelevant. A lot of the things that we can do with credit cards and building up points and our understanding of travel hacking will help us, will set us up well for the future when more and more travel is open to us. So those are my two caveats. Yeah, this is actually an aptly timed episode because you don't get these rewards fast. You don't like start this in a few months later taken all expenses paid vacation. You actually have to work

up for it. It can take like up to a year to try and get like enough rewards to take the full vacation that you want. So we're doing this now in hopes that you have time to build your rewards points so that when travel is safer, when you feel more comfortable than you are ready. So that's kind of why we're timing it right now. That's the point of that. So without further ado, let's start talking about

travel rewards. Our first article is from Millennial money Man, and it's called a Beginner's Guide to travel Hacking, So how to take your first free trip? And I wanted to start out with actually explaining what is travel hacking. So it's hacking is not really the most accurate term because you're not doing anything illegal or against the rules, against the terms of services. It's really optimizing whatever credit card offers you have, optimizing reward capabilities, so it's travel optimizing.

But that's not as fun. It doesn't sound as cool, right. It's essentially just using credit card reward points, using specifically the welcome bonuses that are on travel credit cards, and accumulating those so that you can redeem them for free flights and hotels. That's all it is, is welcome bonus. If you have booked a flight on points, you have travel hacked. If you don't even know what that means,

stay tuned. Yeah, yeah. Most hotels and airlines have some kind of rewards programs, so you can either stay with them and book rewards at a really slow rate and after you spend like tens and tens of thousands of dollars, you get a free night, or you can use their credit cards that are co branded with a bank or a bank's credit cards and get rewards points that get

you there a lot faster. Sometimes it's a point for every dollar you spend and when you were going to spend that dollar on groceries or your phone bill or your internet anyways, why not try to get at points for places that you're going to go to anyways, or you hope to go to, like Southwest or Hyatt or Hilton, stuff like that. Yeah, So it is signing up for these rewards programs. It is identifying promotions that you can take advantage of a lot of the credit cards that

we're going to be talking about. A big component of this is the sign on bonus or once you spend a certain amount, you get this chunk that is only available at the very beginning, and then you continue to build your rewards points from there and can use them for travel, for even restaurants, for hotels, you name it. One of my favorite tips on here though that I would say is the beginner tip and even a long

term tip. It's the direction I have gone. You can veer far right and go a different direction, but it's just becoming loyal and being a repeat customers with the companies that you love. So identifying who do you typically fly with, or what kinds of hotels you typically stay at, or what do you where do you want to be typically staying and signing up with those types of programs or who's the credit card that you primarily you appreciate

the way that they go about their rewards points. It makes the most sense for your lifestyle, and sticking with them, you have a whole lot more opportunity to get the free flights, get the hotels. If you don't have a bunch of different points in a bunch of different accounts and none of it really amounts to anything. That is the direction, however, for people who do get into the weeds with travel hacking is constantly jumping ship from credit card to credit card and kind of chasing those initial

sign on bonuses. That's not what we want to do in the beginning, nor do I feel like that's something you have to do. If this is something you want to do long term, you can just find the really great airlines, credit cards, hotels that will offer you the benefits that you're looking for. So that's the direction I've taken,

and I would recommend it as a beginner as well. Yeah, I personally did not have any brand loyalty before I started travel hacking, and I actually let the rewards points and the cards and the programs tell me which brands I should have loyalty too, so the hotel brand that had the best redemption value, the airline that had the best travel parks, stuff like that. I let the card tell me where to be loyal. It's a great way

to go for me. I've been more loyal to the credit card that I have and can use points on a variety of different airlines. So personally, I'm not loyal to any particular airline, although that is a direction you could go, particularly if you plan to fly a lot. Yeah. So there are a few other things besides points that a travel rewards credit card can give you, and so these are all things to pay attention to if they are important. They're not always important to me, so I

look at really the bonus points value. But some of these cards offer some Some of the airline ones offer free checked bags, priority boarding airline credits. Some of these cards offer credits for uber or lift, so if you find yourself taking those frequently, looking for cards that have that. Some offer no foreign transaction fees. Actually quite a few of them do, so if you go international, that's a

really great benefit access to airline lounges. I know, Jill, that was a big reason that you got your card, so if that's important to you, have been great. And application fee credits for t S, A pre check and Global Entry, which we actually just signed up for using our card. We got it for free. It's not why we signed up for the card, but it was there and we're like, why not. It's free will and we'll have it for five years. I then also travel insurance.

That's a big one. Like rental car companies will try and sell you rental car insurance or travel insurance for other places, and these cards, if you purchase things on them, offer some of them offer automatic insurance on those things. So if you are planning a certain trip where you know you will have to take an uber or get a rental car, or you have a long layover, you may want to lounge plan your vacation and then travel

hack according to it. And that's going to kind of guide you and maybe which cards are best for you. We are going to give you a four to five cards strategy at the end, but beyond that you kind of have to look at these extra perks that may throw you over the edge. It is something to keep in mind, particularly for those who are thinking, yeah, I am going to travel in the future. But we're in the midst of a pandemic, So what do I do?

A lot of these travel rewards credit cards also offer all of these other perks, And I know the credit card I have has even shifted where it was heavy travel rewards. They said, Okay, we know we're not traveling a lot, so here's dining credit. Here's you can translate it into money on Amazon. You name it so well, I know we're talking about travel hacking. A lot of these credit cards also just have other really great rewards

to them that are worth looking into. Yeah. Literally, that's what I spent all of doing instead of redeeming it for travel credit. They let you as long as the redemption was one to one and it wasn't like one to point seven five or something. I used it just to redeem on purchases. It was really easy. And so to break it down a little bit further, just depending on your point of entry into this concept, using your

credit card points for travel hacking. Really, what that means is, as you've spent a certain amount of money on your credit card, with each credit card statement, you usually collect a certain amount of points. Some credit cards will differ on how many points per transaction or type of purchase they give you. So, for instance, if you are purchasing groceries, some credit cards will give you three times the points.

If you are purchasing travel, some credit cards that are particularly a travel credit card might give you, yeah, three to five times the points. And sometimes it's just a one to one dollar ratio one one dollar one point, and then you start to see this little bank account of points increasing and increasing, and you can go onto the dashboard of that credit card and purchase what you want to purchase with those points, whether it be travel

or hotels or anything else. They usually have their own kind of search engine that can help you find what you want to find a go where you want to go. Yeah, I don't really pay attention to the what's four x points, three X points to x points. We simply will get a card, spend on it for three months, get the welcome and then move on to the next card. For us, that's more efficient than trying to carry around three cards and using one for groceries, one for eating out, one

for Amazon purchases. I like to keep it simple as possible, and it's much easier for us because we are a household of two adults. If you're single, your process is going to be a little slower. We can do easily four cards in a year, because that means we're getting I'm getting one, and then three months later he gets one, and then three months later I get one, So that's six months between credit inquiries. Where if you are a single person, you don't want to be getting a card

every three months. You want to spread it out maybe four to six months. That's the safest route. Love that tip. That's helpful. Yeah, But why we're talking about it right now because this is a slow process. If you're getting multiple cards, it's going to take a little time to build up this bank that you want. All right, can we switch into your article, Jen, Oh my gosh. Yes.

So the way that I do the outlines for the show is I will google the key term for the episode and see what Google has to say, and then I will choose the articles I like from there. They're usually all from the first page, and I there were a lot on there, and they were like ten thousand words, and they were very complex, and none of them had like a concrete strategy that I really, you know, like

or used. So I would attribute my first credit card strategy to hearing about it on Choose f I. I know a lot of you are familiar with them their credit card strategy. They call it the Chase Gauntlet, But I mean, I love Chase and like, yes, most of these cards are co branded credit cards with Chase or just Chase credit cards, but also like other ones too, So that is why I wrote my own article and and it just lays out the strategy your first four to five cards. This is what I would do if

I was starting over again. And so this isn't necessarily the order that you have to do it in. We'll talk about order throughout because that depends on the timing and your situation for which order you do it in. So we're gonna give you the four to five cards and you will decide based on when you're hearing this, which one you should go to first. So our first recommendation is the Chase Sapphire Preferred. You're gonna want to pay attention to all of those words because Chase has

a lot of different credit cards. So it's the Chase Sapphire Preferred. And with this card you can earn fifty to sixty thousand bonus points after you spend four thousand dollars on purchases in the first three months after you open the How so, Chase points are great because you can transfer them to dozens of hotels and airline partners, so you don't have to be loyal to just one.

In case you're wondering, this is a similar one to what I have that I was talking about, where I just build up points and you can go to a variety of different airline partners and hotel partners. Well, I think it would be helpful tell them the one that you do have, because it's the sister card to the Chase Sapphire Preferred. I have the Chase Sapphire Reserve, which is more expensive annually. I'm not going to sit here and recommend that as an entry point. I don't think

it is for everybody. I got that card. I think in two thousand eighteen, and between two thousand and eighteen and two thousand and nineteen, I traveled a ton just in two thousand nineteen and went to like seven different countries and twenty eight different states, and so it was worth it to me to have that card. But how much money you have to spend and how which money it is annually is not worth it for everybody, so Chase Sapphire preferred. You have to spend four thousand dollars

in the first three months. For most people, that's pretty easy to do, especially if you're putting a lot of your bills on it groceries. It kind of can become the thing that you purchase on and then you get those bonus points at the beginning that can really just jump start you for booking your travel. And when you book through Chase the Ultimate Rewards Portal, when you book your flights and hotels and all of that, your points are worth more, so you can get a bit of

a discount. Sometimes I've even booked through Chases Portal, even when I'm paying out of pocket, just because they do offer a discount in that way, just because you have the cards. So even if you don't have the points to book on that, you're still getting a discount, which is great. Sixty points are worth seven fifty dollars towards travel, so even just with that bonus, you've got a good

jump start. The card does have an annual so you do want to consider subtracting that from the reward, but so many perks beyond what we've just listed out that it is worth looking into. I love it. I've got the next tier up of the credit card, and I can't say enough good things about it. Yes, this is the one we started with. Travis and I each got one, and it is kind of the industry standard for travel hackers. This is the one you start with. It's just so flexible. Again,

you don't have to have any brand loyalty yet. You just get those points and get the feel for it. And so one of the other reasons why people start with Chase before like a Capital One or a Bank of America or MX is because Chase has a rule that is unique from all other card issuers, and it's called the five five rule. So you will not be approved for a Chase credit card, no matter how great your credit is, if you have opened five credit cards or more in the last twenty four months, So you

have to stay four or less. And that's another reason why opening that's one every six months essentially is you stay at that four over twenty four months and then you're safe. No other credit card issuer has that. So when you reach your four Chase cards or Chase co branded cards, you can still get a bank of America or a Capital one or whatever. But that is a specifically Chase rule and we'll put a link to the points guy dot com their guide to the five rule

if you want to know more about that. But if you're doing this sustainably and long term, then you'll never run into an issue with the rule. That is good to know. It's a good reason to do this one first. And to be clear, we're not getting paid from any of these credit cards. No, no, no, no, solely giving you information. There's no affiliate links or anything here. M uh So. The next one is not a Chase one,

but it is the Capital one Venture. And Chase has so many partners that it's very flexible to transfer out your Chase Ultimate Rewards to a number of other travel companies their reward programs, but they aren't partnered with everyone. So for those things you can't get through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. I like the Capital one Venture, So whether it's for a cruise or an Airbnb, what Capital

one Venture does is it erases travel purchases. And last year we actually got the Capital one Venture in January and thought we were going to be traveling um, but we didn't, so they actually said, hey, you can erase any purchases like any take out a lot of other things, so we were able to get a lot of other

things erased. We still used those miles, but again, and it has a fifty to sixt K bonus depending on when you're listening to this, and you only have to spend three thousand dollars on purchases in the first three months from account opening. And I'll tell you the day that you sign up for the account and get approved.

That's account opening. You can also go to credit carma dot com and look at your credit report and your accounts and it will tell you the day that you signed up and got approved, so you know it's three months from that day. Also, your billing cycle will tell you when the on the second billing cycle that's the end of the three months. So three thousand in three months. It's just a thousand dollars a month, and each point is one cent, so whether your bonus is fifty K

or sixt K, that's five or six hundred dollars. In travel. The card has a nine annual fee, so that's same with the Chase Sapphire Preferred, but this one comes with global entry so we actually we paid for Global Entry and then we paid for it on our Capital one venture and it automatically detected it and within twenty four hours had erased the purchase. So that's just super easy. Yeah,

I didn't have to submit anything. So if that's something you want in the Capital one venture is really great, excellent. The next one on this list is the Chase Inc. Business Preferred. We're back to Chase. How could we not. We couldn't stay away for long. So this one is for you. If you have big purchases coming up. New cardholders can earn one hundred thousand points Chase Ultimate Rewards points by spending Brace Yourselves fifteen thousand dollars within three

months of opening the accounts. That's why I said, if you have big purchases coming up, this would be something that you'd want to consider. Talk about a big jump start in those points. So you're probably thinking, because I was too when I read Jen's article, Um, do you have to have a business? What if you don't? This

is Chase Inc. Business Preferred. You can earn money outside of a W two job, so whether you babysit or sell crafts, or you drive for Lift or Uber or just anything that you do outside of your W two job can be considered your own personal business. You can apply for the car just under your personal Social Security number, which is how you would handle taxes at the end of the year, so it doesn't have to be profitable, you can it can still be considered a business and

you can consider this card. Honestly, as I was reading through your article, Jen, I was thinking about all the renovations that are coming up for Eric and I that this would be a great thing to consider. So if you are in the middle of renovations or just another big purchase that you could put on a card, this would be for you. If not, there is no need to press yourself to spend fifteen thousand dollars to get a hundred thousand dollars and or hundred Nope, already happening

for you. But yeah, you don't have to have an LLC or a registered business to get this. They do not check. And honestly, I have actually signed up for several Chase Ink Businesses cards because I do have a business and it was easier for me to get approved for it when I put in my Social Security versus when I put in my E I N. When I put in my e N, I have to send in like a piece of paper from the I R S and all that. But when I put in my Social

Security number, it was like, yeah, you're approved. So yeah, your business doesn't even have to be profitable. Uber still is unprofitable. Yeah, I'll tell you that Uber end Lift both neither are profitable, and they're still considered businesses. Yeah, all right. So next, these next cards are Chase. So everything on here except for the Capital Adventure is Chase.

And this is where we kind of split off where you would head in your direction of your first year, and the way you split off actually would determine whether you want to get the Capital one venture first or wait. And so your next one would be a co branded hotel or airline card. So at this point you have to decide do I want to do a hotel maybe I'll drive more, or do I want to do an airline, maybe I'll you know, stay with friends stuff like that. So decide whether you want to do a hotel or

an airline. I normally recommend doing a It depends on the time of year that you are starting this. So here we go. This is going to get a tiny, dainy bit complex, but stay with me. I'm here, So I'm going to start with the airline first. My recommendation for airline card beyond a shadow of a doubt is the Southwest Card, the Southwest co branded card with Chase. That is because Southwest has the coveted Southwest Companion Pass. It is the best perk in all of travel rewards.

It is magical. So the Southwest Companion Pass allows you to bring a companion on any Southwest flight that you fly for absolutely free. You just have to pay eleven dollars each way for taxes and fees. You can't get around that. So you can only get a Southwest Companion Pass by taking one hundred flights, but you'll pay at least fifteen thousand in flights alone. Or you can get

it through Southwest credit cards. And this can be a one card endeavor or it could be a two card option, and I have used and do recommend the two card option. The first if you are only trying to do it on one card, maybe you're you got that capital adventure and you're trying to stay below your is the Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business credit card. So that will require you to spend twenty five thousand dollars in the first

six months of account opening. That is unreasonable for most people. Yeah, but the bonus, right, So the bonus on that is a hundred thousand points, and then after spending twenty five dollars, you'll get another twenty five thousand points and there you go. There's your companion pass. The two card method, which would put you at cards four and five and mean you'd have to wait on the Capitol one would only cost

you fifteen thousand dollars over nine months. You have nine months to do it, so you have to start with the personal Southwest card and then also get a Southwest Business card. It's a different one from the Premiere, so you would start with the Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus that is their lower tier personal card, and then spend twelve thousand within nine months of opening it. Only two thousand of that has to be in the first three though

the other ten is the first nine months. Then once you hit that twelve thousand spend, then you sign up for the Premier Business credit card. So that would only require you to spend three thousand on purchases in the first three months, and after that you have over a hundred forty thousand just in the bonus points, and so you've got it. But the caveat with this is that to get the most out of your Companion Pass, you have to time the opening of the first card correctly.

So the Southwest Companion Pass is valid in the year you qualify for it and the entire following calendar year. So that means if for some reason, you could spend eighteen thousand dollars in January of one year and get the Companion Pass, then you would have it for almost two years, like almost a full two years. Not many people are going to do that. So you want to sign up for that first card, that personal card, between

November and March of whatever year you're starting this. You want to make sure because the first card you're going to get is that Personal Plus, and that first bonus is two thousand. They do this on purpose. If you're wondering why did they split up the things, it's because of this right here. They want to make it harder

for you to qualify for the Companion Pass. You have to make sure you do not spend two thousand dollars in November or December, so that that bonus hits in the first calendar year, because all a D twenty five thousand of your points must be gained in one calendar year January one to December thirty one. And there's a small caveat if you're doing this on points, you actually only have till your December the end of your December

billing cycle. So if the end of your December billing cycle is like December three, you only have through December three to get all your points essentially. So that's why you say, sign up for that Southwest personal card no earlier than November, preferably December, depending on how much your expense is in and make sure you cross that two

thousand dollar spend mark January one or later. And then after that you can go as quickly as you can to get the rest of the spend on the personal and then the business and then as soon as you make the spend, you get the companion pass. Well done, Jen, I'm still here. And also we got linked to your article as well. For those of us who are visual, do you understand that I did? But I think unless I was planning on doing this, I probably would have

tuned out. Okay, all right, great, I'm glad, So if you are not in the November to March window, then with another card, So that would be I would say Hyatt or Hilton are my choices for hotel cards. I am now a Hyatt loyalist because of the insane redemption rate you get with Hyatt Points. I have a Hyatt card. I transfer most of my Chase Ultimate words to Hyatt. Their redemption can't be beat and I'm not going all out with Points, so I don't have the time or

energy to get there with Marriott or whatever. So that's why I love Hyatt. The only reason that I would go with Hilton is because American Express has a Hilton Honors that has no annual fee. And if you are trying to build up your credit, especially if you don't own a home, then you don't have that credit history length a mortgage can give you, You're gonna want to have a card or a few cards with a very

long established history. So that would be if you are are new to credit and working on your credit history, maybe don't have a mortgage, then get a card with no annual fee like the Hilton Honors American Express they have a few, so choose the one with no annual fee because the other one is expensive. But this is a good way to build your credit without paying the bank to do it. You do not have to pay the bank to build your credit. Don't pay interest, don't

pay annual fees more than once. We cancel all of our cards before the second annual fee hits. That's just something we do. We have established credit histories, and our credit doesn't really dip when we do that, so that's

something we do. But and the Hilton a m X has really great benefits to You get a hundred thousand dollars Hilton bonus points after just a thousand dollars in eligible purchases in the first three months, and you get a hundred dollar statement credit after your first purchase, So it's really great in addition to being no annual fee. Fantastic. That's it. This is great content for people who want to know where do I start? How do I do this?

Here you go, and we will link this article in the show notes because this is very low hanging fruit, very tangible stuff. Yeah, but you know what else is low hanging in tangible? Oh? We that's right. It's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That's build buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of

the week. Hey, hey, Jill. My name is Megan from Atlanta, and I was calling because my bill of the week field extra epic and worthy of sharing. I have been paying my student loan for almost seven years, and as of today, the payment cleared and it is paid in full. I am so excited about this. My husband and I have been trying to become debt free for the last fourteen months and we are getting closer and closer every day.

And as of next month, we are also qualified to apply for the Temporary Expanded Public Student Loan forgiveness for my husband's student loan, which would essentially forgive almost fifty thou dollars, and if that goes through, which it should, we are only about two dollars from being debt free at that point. So I'm so excited, and I'm so thankful for your guys. Podcasts is kind of getting me that motivation every Friday. Um, I'm loving guys so much.

Thank you who. I promised my husband that I was going to be quiet during this podcast recording, like I'm not going to scream this time. I'm gonna be so much more quiet because we've got company. But oh, Megan from Atlanta, this is Megan deserves your boisterousness. Is at getting rid of a student loan. There's nothing like it. There's there's no better way to get back at your university. Oh my god, I am done with you everything, everything

they've done to you. I love the education and the debt. Congratulations, Megan Man. That is that's freeing. So I hope that you have gotten through. Because this was a few months ago. We're a few months behind on bills of the week, so if you've sent one in, we haven't played it.

That's why. So, Megan, if you're listening to this, if you haven't left the show because you're sad that we didn't play your bill, If you're still listening, let us know in the Frugal Friends community on Facebook, how much closer you are to total debt freedom. We're so proud of you, so exciting, and I'm so glad that we get to spend every Friday morning with you. If you all want to submit your bill of the week. Visit

Frugal Friends podcast dot com, slash bill. Leave us a bill, whether it's as epic as Megan's was or just something else random related to Bill. You know how we roll. We'd love to hear it. Maybe your sadness when the Buffalo Bills did not go to the Super Bowl. M I was really hoping for Buffalo Bills like memorabile. Yeah, but then I'm like, oh, maybe they made it. It's gonna be on sale now. I still haven't checked though to see. Yeah, it's not the Buccaneers of the week.

So yeah, I live into MPa and I don't even want a buckshirt. I want a Bill shirt. That's very telling of me. Anyways, now it's time for lightning. Did you promise you wouldn't have a loud lightning round? So? I promised I would do nothing loud. I'm going to talk quiet. I talk like this. He's like, this isn't how you talking? Like? Will this time? I will this time? Because we have company and they're trying to sleep. I think they're up there. They are not trying to sleep,

should wake up? They are? Now, Yeah, you're doing them a favor alright, So we're going to talk about the travel hacks that we have personally done that we are most proud of. And mine's easy. I Jill, I thought yours is going to be different, but maybe I'll have to share yours. Yeah, I know, I always forget, but I think I've got a good one. But keep going, all right. So mine is five days at all Inclusive resort in Mexico. M That was great, your first getaway

since having a baby. Oh my gosh, it was a dream. And it was December of two thousand nineteen, right, So like that was it? That was the only Yeah, do it? Then it wasn't going to happen, all right. So we had the Southwest Companion Pass and a bunch of Chase Ultimate rewards after we had been doing this for we had been travel hacking for a year and a half at this point when we had enough to book this trip. So, like I said, this is not something that happens overnight.

I think we were we were at least six months in before we took our first trip, and we were a year and a half in before we worked up to this. So we had our Companion pass, so we got our flights from Upa to Cancoon, Mexico, twenty two dollars for each because we each have to pay. I paid for the flights with my points, and then Travis's was free, So twenty two dollars each way for taxes

and fees. Paid for the transportation from the airport to the all inclusive resort, which was like five bucks each way, and then the entire four nights, five days for nights was covered. It's a Hyatt all inclusive resort, the highest Zalara, and it was twenty five thousand points per night. And so we had the Highatt credit card where we've gotten I think sixty thousand points fifty or sixty. And then

we had Chase Ultimate rewards. We transferred some of those over so we got a hundred thousand Highatt points and so every night was covered, and so food, drink, entertainment, cabanas by the pool on the b each And that just makes it all the more lovely to know we didn't pay for any of this. We got this with the purchases we already had to make in our daily life. It's why we do like credit cards, if you don't

go into debt by having them there's incredible benefits. Yes, so that whole trip was under a hundred dollars for the week. So I don't have a travel hack that particularly stands out to me. That's not to say that it doesn't exist. My brain is just not always working. Just consistent free hotels, car rentals, and flights on nearly

every trip I go on has been my experience. Although I will say, and this might be a little uh you mentioned it in the articles, but one of the things I love about the credit card that we have is a travel insurance that it provides. So anytime I book a flight or a hotel or a car rental on that card, I don't ever have to worry about clicking that yeah add D nine to ensure this trip or any other dollar amount. Because the credit card covers that. They do ensure any of my travel, and I have

taken advantage of it. So for me, this is where frugality intersects because I don't want to spend money unnecessarily. I don't want to spend money on fees that are unforeseen. There was an experience in Washington State where I got two popped tires on a rental car. There was an experience in Idaho where I got another pupped tire on a rental car, and also an experience where I had to cancel Airbnb, and airbnp is notorious for not having good cancelations, the one reason I don't book with them.

Hotels have much better cancelation policies. However, because I booked with my credit card, I was able to be fully reimbursed for all of those incidences, particularly with Airbnb. Chase went to at for me and got me all my money back. I mean, it was a bit of a thing I had been updated on that you were. You were fighting that for so long. It was a six month battle, so I'm not going to say it was enjoyable by any means, but Chase got my money back.

Airbnb wanted nothing to do with me. Chase was the one who was like, all right, we're back and forth with them. We got your your money here. It is so to me that has been an amazing travel hack that I get through my credit card and the amount of money they've given me back just by all of these faux pas that have happened in these different states. Yeah,

it's worth it tenfold. Yeah, I love that. It's definitely, when you have something that you need refunded, a credit card is much easier to do that with a credit card than it is a debit card, for sure. So I hope that this has been helpful to you if you want to start travel hacking, if you want to incorporate that into your frugal lifestyle. Again, you don't have to.

If this all sounds maybe too much for you, if you're paying off debt and you're like, I can't worry about another thing, then save this episode, listen to it again later. We didn't start travel acking until we were debt free, so this isn't something that you have. You don't have to do everything at once, but it is a great way to get stuff from big banks without paying for it. Take back control of the money. You paid a lot of money and interest on your student loans,

on your cards, on your other credit cards. Stop doing that and start taking it from the banks through you. Take advantage, all right, So thank you again for listening, and thank you for your kind reviews. They do support the show, so if you can't support us monetarily, then leaving a review is the next best thing, and right now it's the only thing. So definitely leave a review kind of like this one from Cecilia p just happens to be five stars. She says frugality made fun and

she as many emojis with the money mouth. She says, we have been on a debt free journey for the last six years and have paid off a hundred and fifty thousand in consumer debt. We are in our last debt of thirty five thousand my student loan and was about to give up on our journey. I lost all my motivation in and then found this podcast while searching

for inspiration. I cannot thank you enough. You girls are a lot of fun and I feel like I'm listening to girlfriends talk while cooking and cleaning and having no spend days. I have learned and found my motivation to continue to get to the finish line. Thank you. I've got goose bumps. Wow. Thank you, and that's I'm so glad for the review and also thrilled that this has been a motivating piece for you and you feel supported and encouraged in your journey. I can't ask for more.

Thank you. Thank you for sharing that with us, and to stay for you. We'll get there. That one fifty dollars will be gone. My good to do it, and we also want to thank our friends who share these episodes on social media. When you share the latest episode and tag us on Facebook or Instagram, we add you to our monthly drawing. For every five tags and reviews we get each month, we give away a copy of the Frugal Friends workbook. So keep leaving us reviews on

iTunes or Stitcher. Take a screenshot before you send it and send that screenshot to Frugal Friends podcast at gmail dot com, and don't forget to tag us on social at Frugal Friends Podcast. See you next week, ye. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni